Chapter 431: Cracks of Illusion

Boom!

As Lu Xin gripped a section of the wall and tugged it outward,

his mind suddenly felt as if something had erupted in chaos – a burst of explosive clarity within his thoughts.

That sensation of explosion occurred deep within his own mind.

It was as if an obsession had shattered something inside him, suddenly clearing a blocked blood vessel.

At the same moment, a dark red gleam flashed in his pupils.

The material of the wall he held transformed instantly into a dark red hue.

That tangible sensation vanished in an instant.

Much like a thin sheet of ice shattering at one spot and rapidly spreading outward,

it ultimately caused the entire icy surface to collapse completely.

…

The oppressive, damp atmosphere around him dissipated.

The corridor he was in began to fade, morphing from reality into a blurry, dissolving vision; eventually everything turned into a dark red glow that gradually became transparent and diffused into the surrounding air.

It was as if a dream had shattered, leaving Lu Xin’s vision surreal and unreal.

He realized that he now stood in the middle of a wasteland.

The sun hung in the sky, yet from here it looked dark and unfamiliar.

Glancing back, he could vaguely discern a bright world outside, though it felt utterly separated from him.

The only thing that felt real was the doll by his side, which still clutched his hand tightly; the dark red glow fell upon her face, lending her delicate features an enigmatic aura.

An invisible force field expanded around her, shielding her from the intense mental energy that permeated the air.

This was likely linked to her unique abilities.

With her small mouth slightly agape, as if she had just witnessed a grand magic show, she looked at Lu Xin with delight.

This all seemed to resonate with her very nature.

…

“So it was just an illusion after all?”

Lu Xin took a deep breath and then noticed countless people around him…

They stood densely over the wasteland, stretching until the horizon.

Everyone kept a distance of three to five meters from each other, each frozen in varied postures; their heads turned inward, their faces twisted with unspeakable hatred, hostility, and even a desperate, battle-ready despair directed at Lu Xin.

Instantly alert, Lu Xin met their gaze and pulled the doll close behind him.

Yet the anticipated attack never came.

Those angry faces merely maintained a motionless posture facing him.

They did not truly launch an assault, and this rigid stance lasted only a few seconds.

Gradually, they all turned their heads, as if resuming a stuttering rotation like a scratched record, and began to move along predetermined trajectories; even their venomous expressions of resentment slowly faded, replaced by a cheerful mien.

…

“Are these… the people from inside the bottle?”

Lu Xin watched their movements silently, the fog in his heart gradually clearing as he began to understand.

Before him stood an elderly man in a worn suit.

He walked along a furrow in the wasteland, his face exuding authority, his hands clasped behind his back.

Occasionally, he glanced to the left and right before nodding in satisfaction.

Lu Xin noticed that his eyes were closed – the act of ‘seeing’ appeared to be merely a gesture.

The furrow was short; his leather shoes were caked with mud, yet he continued walking, taking a mere four meters before turning back.

He repeated this over and over, all the while wearing an expression of unusual contentment and calm.

Lu Xin recognized this man – he had seen him before in the bottle.

At that time, he had observed the man cheerfully greeting customers in a thriving butcher shop.

…

Looking further ahead, about five or six meters from this man stood a girl wearing a thin down jacket and a pale green apron tied at her chest.

She had wrapped a handkerchief around her head, her face alight with a joyful smile; her hands raised as if serving food, she gracefully approached, setting a dish before a ‘customer’ before happily dashing off to the kitchen.

Throughout her actions, her eyes remained closed.

When Lu Xin saw her in the bottle, she was busy running her own small restaurant.

…

Lu Xin let out a low sigh, feeling increasingly uneasy.

Looking around, there were many like him – densely packed and bustling.

He noticed a chubby girl, modestly scratching her hair while shoving a piece of rotten wood into her mouth.

A blush crept across her cheeks, as if a white knight were confessing his love to her right before her eyes.

He saw a middle-aged man under a tree, hurriedly trying to pull down his pants while clutching a bundle of weeds.

On a furrow, a young mother cradled her child, feeding him while gently rocking him to sleep.

The scene was warm and blissful.

…if one were to ignore the fact that the child in her arms had already decayed.

…

The entire world was massive and silent.

Every person here bore a satisfied, content smile.

Even with their eyes closed, their movements were delicate and tender, as if carefully tending to the life they cherished most.

“Is this sleepwalking?”

Lu Xin recalled seeing Vice President Xiao sleepwalking in the Second Satellite City and noted that, while similar, there was a fundamental difference.

Yet something essential set them apart.

Maintaining his calm, Lu Xin scrutinized this silent world and gradually uncovered their flaw.

The air was thick with intense mental energy.

Although this mental energy was usually invisible, when it reached a certain density, it manifested as distinct shadows that betrayed its presence – exactly like the situation in this area.

The overwhelming mental radiation wove together into dark red ripples, faintly visible.

But this radiation was more than just present; Lu Xin felt as if he were looking at an enormous circuit board, every strand of energy following its own pattern as they intertwined and merged, as though painting with broad strokes of color.

Following a definite trajectory, they interlaced to form a complex panorama.

…

Some of the shapes resembled buildings, while others hinted at vague human forms.

It was like an abstract three-dimensional painting that shrouded this vast wasteland.

Suddenly, he realized he was standing in the midst of a bustling small town, with blue stone buildings lining brown cobblestone streets, a clear river winding through, and boats laden with fruits and flowers teeming with tourists.

Inside the town lived a group of content, happy people.

At the street corner, a butcher shop owner, clad in a suit he had worn for over a decade and hands folded behind his back, prowled around his counter like a lion; nearby, his apprentices and assistants diligently cut meat and served customers.

After a lifetime of slaughtering pigs and sheep, he had finally succeeded in his career in old age.

He no longer needed to toil himself, as his family reaped enough from his earnings.

Thus, within the limited space of his counter—less than ten meters—merely pacing back and forth brought him immense satisfaction.

The girl in the pale green apron and her beloved partner ran the small restaurant together, dreaming of a brilliant future.

In a warm little hut nearby, a woman soothed her sleeping child while waiting for her husband to return and enjoy the broth she had carefully simmered.

Beneath a streetlight, the chubby girl received a confession from a pre-Civilization Era superstar.

Around the corner in a small inn, a middle-aged man, cradling a beautiful woman in his arms, expressed his heartfelt satisfaction.

She had finally been conquered by him.

…

Lu Xin looked upon this lively scene with an inexplicable unease.

He knew all too well that what he now saw was nothing but an illusion – a mirage woven from mental radiation.

At first glance, it appeared perfect and beautiful.

But in reality, there were no buildings, no quaint town rivers, no actual butcher shops or restaurants.

Only a dense, pervasive mass of mental energy.

This mental radiation had conspired to create a small town, trapping these people within the city.

Is this the Disaster Museum?

It had divided this idyllic city into portions, imprisoning the people’s spirits inside bottles.

Their happiness, their beauty, their efforts, and their desires were all nonexistent.

They were merely solitary souls sleepwalking across the wasteland.

They

were just a group of people living in bottles.

…

“What is this all about?”

The strange sensation weighed on Lu Xin’s heart as he muttered to himself.

“Are they using the power of mental radiation to fabricate an illusory world to compensate for their lives?”

“…”

After voicing his question, no answer came for a long while.

Suddenly, Lu Xin’s expression turned to one of sheer terror as he spun around to look at his surroundings.

…

Ever since he had broken free from the illusion of the Disaster Doctor Museum, Lu Xin had felt oddly detached.

The silence was unnerving.

Only the sight of these silent, sleepwalking people evoked a strange feeling that momentarily overwhelmed him.

It wasn’t until he turned around that he noticed on the wasteland there were only these slowly drifting figures and the overgrown weeds gently crushed by dense mental radiation—no sign of his Mom, no sign of his Father, nor his Sister.

In that moment, his world became startlingly clear: he stood alone in the wasteland.

A surge of panic gripped Lu Xin’s heart.

Caught off guard, he felt abandoned in the barren expanse.

Where had his family gone? How could they simply vanish?

In his panic, one thought came to mind – it was Mom who had smiled at him in the corridor:

“Are you sure you want to see through it?”